Israel begins forced evacuation of Gaza settlers

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops began the forced evacuation on Wednesday of thousands of Jewish settlers gripped by rage and anguish over their expulsion from the Gaza Strip after nearly four decades of occupation.

Unarmed soldiers broke through burning barricades and marched door to door ordering people out of their homes in at least five settlements, while police grabbed protesters and pushed them onto waiting buses.

Confrontation loomed as forces fanned out in the largest enclave, Neve Dekalim, where ultranationalist youths who slipped into the community of red-roofed homes over the past several weeks holed up in a synagogue for a possible last stand.

The operation, the culmination of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for the removal of settlements on some of the land Palestinians want for a state, began after a midnight deadline for Gaza settlers to leave or face forcible eviction.

"I don't want to. I don't want to," one woman wept as four female soldiers, each grabbing a limb, carried her out of her home in Neve Dekalim. Many settlers believe Gaza is part of the Land of Israel bequeathed to the Jewish people by God.

Soldiers retreated from another house in the settlement where residents started shrieking and smashing glassware. Some settlers scuffled with soldiers and were taken into custody.

"Guys, why are you doing this?" cried a man named Yehuda who stood on his rooftop wearing his old military uniform in the Morag settlement after troops, accompanied by bulldozers, made their way past makeshift barricades and marched in.

Black smoke from tire and rubbish fires billowed over the area.

Dozens of other settlers and their supporters left without a fight, some even tearfully hugging soldiers before filing onto buses waiting to ferry them across the border into Israel.

"We are coming in to evacuate. We will not leave until it is empty," Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel, head of the army's southern command, told reporters in Neve Dekalim, as troops started knocking on doors.

Seventeen-member squads made up of soldiers, police and paramilitary police have been training for the operation for weeks, practicing scenarios that include violent resistance.

Government eviction notices went into effect on Monday but settlers were given a 48-hour grace period to leave or be removed from all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank.

A Reuters photographer saw bulldozers move in and start demolishing buildings vacated by settlers in the northern Gaza settlement of Nissanit.

SOME HEED ORDERS

Taking heed of warnings, many of Gaza's 8,500 settlers packed up trucks ahead of the Wednesday deadline to quit the Gaza Strip, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, and joined an exodus ending Israel's 38-year occupation of the coastal strip.

But the army estimated that about half the settler population would remain in defiance of a withdrawal which opponents see as surrender to Palestinian violence.

A hard core of some 5,000 pullout opponents have reached Gaza settlements over the past several weeks despite a partial military closure of the area.

Palestinians welcome Israel's withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. They also fear Sharon devised the plan as a ruse to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live.

Israel Radio reported the army could complete the evacuation of all the settlements within days, speeding up an operation the military had said it hoped to complete by September 4.

"It's truly difficult to live with what's happening but we're still praying for a miracle," said teenager Sarit Noy.

Yael Yarim, 50, who was preparing to leave, said: "My heart has been broken."

In Kfar Darom, a stronghold of the religious far-right, no settlers said they planned to leave. Shifting huge concrete blocks, they reinforced the synagogue as a possible redoubt.

Israeli officials said four small Gaza settlements and two in the northern West Bank had already evacuated on their own ahead of the deadline.

Officials say 66 percent of settler families have accepted compensation deals. Those who refused to go could lose a third of the money, ranging from $150,000 to $400,000 per family.

The army intends to pull out the last troops from Gaza in early October.

The World Court describes Israeli settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.

Israel says the withdrawal will end its occupation of Gaza, but Palestinians say that can only happen once they gain full control of borders and airspace. Israel is reluctant to allow that for now, citing security reasons.

- REUTERS